The Epicurious Wanderers!

Mt Cook, beautiful one minute, gone the next!

For those that have visited Mt Cook, here’s a few snaps from our trip down to see it, if you’ve never been then this is a taster of what to expect.

The road out of Christchurch passes through rolling farmland before heading inland towards the Southern Alps.   As you head towards Mt Cook you come to Lake Tekapo and The Church of The Good Shepherd.  The church overlooks the lake, the view through the window behind the altar is amazing, no stained glass needed here.

Up behind Tekapo is Lake Alexandrina, a very quiet isolated place where people come to leave the city behind them.  The ‘batches’ or cabins up here are a real mix of styles and ages, some old and almost falling apart and others straight from the showroom.  The lake is great for fishing and has some amazing views.

Lake Alexandrina

After you leave Tekapo you head around Lake Pukaki towards Mt Cook, again the views are just amazing.  Mt Cook itself is just majestic as it rises up behind the peaks around it, as clouds roll across it can vanish in moments only to reappear just as quickly.  When we arrived on Monday the place was spectacular, sun was out, wind was just a gentle breeze so we sat on the balcony at the Sir Ed Bar and just watched the mountain.  We then decided to wander through the Sir Edmund Hillary Museum, the man was just amazing with the things he accomplished.

That night we dined at the Alpine Restaurant, a buffet style setup, out table was right by the window and again we just sat watching the mountain letting most of our food go cold!  After dinner we were booked in to go Star Gazing, with so few lights around the stars are supposed to be amazing.  The night starts with a planetarium session to help orientate you as to what to look for.  We didn’t even think when they started the show that it might bring on a bit of the vertigo for Helen, but it did!  She decided she neded to rest after this part so we dropped her off at the chalet before the rest of the group headed out to Mt Cook Airport for our star gazing.  Maybe Helen had the right idea, the cloud had come in and we managed a quick glimpse of the Southern Cross and not much of anything else.  After hanging around for while we decided to give up and head back.  For our efforts and disappointment we received $25 vouchers to spend in the gift shop.

The next morning things hadn’t improved, in fact they’d got worse, now it was raining.

Cloud in the valley.

In fact it rained all day and most of the next night.  We had planned on a bit of walking for the morning and then were supposed to be going on a glacier trip in the afternoon, instead we read books for the morning having done most of the indoor stuff the day before.  The afternoon glacier trip was cancelled due to weather so again we had a drink and watched the mountain through the clouds.  All in all not a great day, although dinner at the Panorama Restaurant was pretty special, the food was great.

Next morning after breakfast we checked out and set off back to Christchurch, again it was drizzling and cloudy.  As we headed back down the valley the weather improved and the sun came out.  The drive back then was fairly uneventful, a stop for food and fuel and a few photo stops but not much else to comment on.